Comments on: Are Europeans Too Lazy to be Software Entrepreneurs?

By: xen

xen — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:56:40 +0000

We Europeans want more out of life than just work. We want health and fun. And if some one only wants work, we allow them, the same as we allow people to maybe just work part time. We respect individuality and don’t expect everyone to be carbon copies of each other.

The 40h we work each week we work hard. If you don’t like our culture, you are much welcomed to leave.

By: online pharmacy

online pharmacy — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:15:41 +0000

That’s why most startup founders are single anyway: their company is their only thing in life.

Now, on the topic of Software Engineer being geeky. To be honest, Software Engineer these days don’t fit the “geeky” generalization anymore. Software Engineer these days go to night-club and have some fun.

By: John Dovel

John Dovel — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:13:43 +0000

I was being semi-sarcastic about “us nerds” (I actually consider myself to be a fairly well-rounded individual).

By: Kalou

Kalou — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:30:56 +0000

Yep
This guy wanted to become googly rich. First Start Up and already so much knowledge. I’m impressed.
I’m 55 and therapist. People who work n work n work well either they have a kind of cancer or heart attack or try to avoid them buy coming to my place.
Don’t be so sure. Mr start-up I KNOW.
And take care of your health.

By: Al

Al — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:22:03 +0000

This isn’t an excuse to bag on AllPeers, from my point of view. That’s childish.

By: Meg

Meg — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:52:36 +0000

Well well well
You’re young and you lack vision in life. Did you wanted to become Google? I’m not sure to understand.
If Einstein was applying for a job in Allpeers, you’ll have laughed at his face. This guy was a lazy average student. Gandhi was a shy little man and look.
You haven’t come to the point to appreciate No and failure in life and apparently life itself.
Yes Allpeers was down because of its creator.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 10:32:23 +0000

Ted,

I was being semi-sarcastic about “us nerds” (I actually consider myself to be a fairly well-rounded individual). But it’s true that I would be wary of any programmer who wasn’t happy talking for hours on end about his projects with another smart programmer.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 10:31:06 +0000

Al - well I did say that the startup lifestyle generally works best for people in their 20s.

By: Ted

Ted — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 17:08:13 +0000

My professor (he used to work as an engineer and consultant for IBM) said this to me:

“You can’t be a super successful CEO and a super successful Dad, you’d have to pick either one. Decision making is what the Business School taught the students”.

At that moment, I understand a little bit more of how “Life” works.

That’s why most startup founders are single anyway: their company is their only thing in life.

If you think that everyone has to be the “Software Engineer” of your description, you’ll see more decrease in Computer Science, Computer Engineering and IT majors all across the university. At the end of the day, you’ll be forced to offshore your development team or pay premium price for developers.

Please, enough brainwashing us (Software Engineer) with the concept of “We only talk in software code”. That is so ridiculous. Especially when you’re talking about “oh, I write this in Java”, “last night I was coding .NET in Windows”, “I’m doing some iPhone app”.

Please… all of your tools are broken. Java… poor. Windows Vista… absolutely poor. iPhone… good from the outside, stupid on the inside. Ruby… is handicap.

If all you do is talking about these stuffs, I pity you.

since for all the real programmers I know, the most interesting subject imaginable is the software project they are currently working on. That’s why our social skills suck so bad. When we run into someone who isn’t a geek, we have no idea what to talk about

I’m a software engineer. I’ve been in this industry for couple years. Every time I saw “geeks” like that, I always told them to read non-techie books and tell them to socialize.

I’ve had enough with blogs and articles saying that “the state of IT is broken because the MBAs are stupid”. Don’t blame just on one side. Look at yourself: you’re part of the problem. You think you’re smart and all that because you can code? if you only talk in “geek”, this is what happened.

This is why IT industry is f-ing broken: the players themselves are destroying it because they’re ego, selfishness, and the concept of being “geek” is planted on their heads.

I agree with the first commenter that most people can work like mad when they were 22-28. But once they have family, they would prefer work-life balance. Please don’t call them lazy, they’ve been through many stupid ideas that have failed and placed them in not-so good situation anyway.

The point is: us, as a software engineer, would work for one or two startups and get rich quick. If we can’t get rich quick, why should we work more for the glory of YOU, the founder. There’s no economical and emotional benefit for us.

The story of “American programmers sleep under their computer desk” is highly exaggerated. Not to mention that these stories came from the dot-com bust. Yeah, you got that right, the dot-com bust. Yup, the one and only nightmare… Maybe that’s why they call it the “nightmare”, the “bust”. What was the result back then? People went from millions to zero in an instance.

Don’t blame software engineer for not wanting to take the risk. Been there, done that, got burned.

If you want to have the “ideal” startup the “American way”, I’d suggest you NOT to HIRE anyone else except all of the founders. Seriously. Take a look at those YCombinator companies. They live in one apartment together and code whenever they like. All of them are equally passionate about the product that they’re building because they take NO COMMAND from the Boss. There is no Boss. They’re the Boss of themselves.

As long as there is The Boss in a company, there won’t be an “equal” passion. At the end of the day, “My boss told me to do this”, working at a startup that is owned by someone else is no difference than working 9-5. It’s your idea, not mine. It’s your company, not mine. It’s your decision, not mine. More importantly, you’re the one whose going to get rich, not me.

Please put a figure how much a Software Engineer can get after the company is being bought-out or after IPO. Only two companies have made their early engineers filthy rich so far: Microsoft and Google.

By: Al

Al — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 09:59:33 +0000

Great, now the unhealthy (and unsustainable) American obsession is spreading to Europe.

I’m sorry but when I was 22 (or even 28), working like a dog 80 or more hours a week was doable. I was even married then (the first time…) for a while. When you’re 35, 45, or 55, do you really think the best use of your life and talents (not to mention, the most productive for the company) is being a workaholic?